One Little Lie. Sam Carrington

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       PROLOGUE

       19th March 2014 – Exeter Crown Court

      ‘It took approximately eight hours for Sean Taylor to die.’

      She listened as the man spoke, her heart beating a little faster, her eyes blinking a little more than necessary. She shifted in her seat. Her bottom was numb, her legs heavy. She didn’t want to hear the details. She needed to. Her gaze fixed on the coroner; she couldn’t move her limbs and escape the courtroom, couldn’t close her ears to the words.

      She had to know.

      ‘The stab wound to the back of his neck entered between cervical C5 and C6, causing complete severance of the spinal cord. Not immediately fatal, but it would’ve paralysed him.’

      A tight band constricted her chest wall, threatening to squash her heart. Still, she listened.

      ‘He lay, unable to move, in his own blood for hours. It wasn’t until the tide came in fully that his life was finally taken.’

      ‘So, cause of death was drowning?’

      The man’s left eye twitched. It was visible even from her seat in the gallery. ‘Well, officially, yes – suffocation from water was the decisive factor. But, clearly, the stab which caused—’

      ‘That will be all, Doctor Varsey. No further questions.’

      The young man in the dock was standing very still – like a shop dummy, frozen in position by the person who put it there. Unmoved by proceedings. His mop of blond hair fell in loose curls, covering his eyes. Blocking his guilt from view. How could this unremarkable eighteen-year-old have caused so much devastation?

      She swallowed.

      He deserved what was coming to him. Didn’t he? A lifetime in prison.

      A life for a life.

      But he wasn’t the only one who needed to be punished.